PHILADELPHIA — While watching the final minutes of Sunday’s practice unfold from an upper-deck perch at PCOM, Brett Brown finished a thought with a fleeting realization.

“There are shining moments, without a doubt, in the first third of the season,” the 76ers coach said.

But while Brown and the Sixers have turned heads — with a few big wins, a few unlikely players having career years, a rookie shining in his initial NBA go-around, and roster castoffs from elsewhere finding footholds here — the first-year coach is not naïve. His team is putting in the work, on which the returns have been scarce at best.

Brown reflected on the first 28 games of his team’s season and, following a brief on-court session, in which his players underwent only conditioning work, he sent the Sixers (8-20) into a three-day break for the holiday. The team won’t reconvene until Thursday in Phoenix for a team meeting and a practice. Then, they’ll prepare for Saturday’s tilt with the Suns (16-10) — the first of five in a row away from home.

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It’s not going to be a half-week of indulging while they’re away, the coach insisted.

“Nobody’s going to come back having gained 10 pounds,” Brown said.

If Brown has taught his players anything, it’s the value of their fitness. A holiday break will be no exception. The Sixers are heading into their downtime with fitness plans from head trainer Jesse Wright. They are to watch what they eat, put in their required cardio work, get up some shots at local gyms, and even take in a massage if they must.

It’s all part of coming back in game-ready mode for the next stretch of their season, one Brown is greatly anticipating. On that note, the Sixers have a week between games, from Saturday’s loss to Eastern Conference bottomfeeder Milwaukee to next Saturday’s date in the desert.

Time to reassess their goals? To evaluate who still belongs? To right the proverbial ship? All of the above, Brown said.

“I think we’re sending them away with a mindset. This is what I said to them, and it’s what I really think: it’s broken up into thirds,” Brown said. “The first third is gone, now we’ve got the next third to (get to) the All-Star break, and then what teams do after the All-Star break is really interesting evaluation.

“Here’s the middle third. How do we handle it? We have to come back with a far-greater emphasis and mentality on team defense. We get it. We understand it. That’s not who any of us are. It needs to be fixed. It’s that mindset.”

The first one-third of the Sixers’ season has been dominated by down points. They’ve lost 15 of their last 18 games, including their last 12 in a row on the road. They’ve punctuated the opening portion of their slate with trademark victories over Miami and Chicago, with marquee performances from Rookie of the Year candidate Michael Carter-Williams and career showings from Spencer Hawes, Evan Turner and Thaddeus Young.

Yet there’s so much more Brown wants to scrawl off his team’s to-do list, even if the results don’t reflect its achievements.

“This group is great,” Brown said. “These guys take two or three hours on gameday after shootaround. It’s a great group. Nobody’s shying away.”